Sourcing senior interim procurement talent when candidate pools are small and competition is high
The University of Kent has 17,000 students from over 140 countries worldwide and is an exciting and diverse organisation with campuses at Canterbury, Medway and Brussels. When they had an urgent need to plug a skills gap with a delivery-focused, high-impact procurement professional on an interim basis, the University needed a recruitment partner with a strong network of compliant candidates that could be tapped into on demand. Having successfully worked together since 2009, the University could count on Morgan Law to deliver.
The Challenge
As well as the urgent need to plug a skills gap, sourcing senior procurement candidates proved to be challenging due to several factors, including:
- Their location in Canterbury meant there was a small pool of candidates to choose from that could access the campus daily
- The complex features of the interim procurement market
- The demanding nature of the role
To reduce the talent pool even further, there is also a high level of competition for senior procurement professionals with the competencies required for executing high-priority strategies.
The Solution
After listening to the University’s unique requirements, our experienced consultants took a detailed brief before commencing a search. As with all assignments of this nature, we used a three-pronged approach to identify suitable applicants:
- The role was advertised on job boards and morgan-law.com
- We identified and approached candidates registered with Morgan Law
- We targeted and headhunted candidates in similar positions
Not only did we leverage our already-established network of procurement professionals, we broadened our search criteria using targeted job ads and headhunted passive candidates in similar positions to reach a wider audience.
The Outcome
Final candidates
Successful placements
Week turnaround
After the initial pre-screening and interviews, the University of Kent requested two final candidates. Both proved to be appointable, as not only was an offer made to their first choice, the second-choice candidate was later offered a short-term procurement assignment as a Project Manager.
How Morgan Law can help find interim procurement talent
Adopting a consultative approach, we take the time to listen to our clients and offer tailored solutions to meet the unique resourcing challenges of hiring in the public and not-for-profit sectors. We have one of the largest candidate networks in the market and are committed to connecting outstanding organisations with talented professionals.